Like Falling Rain
by skyewardfitzsimmonsphilinda
Summary: Based on this prompt: "Can we see one where Grant and Skye have history ie they knew each other as kids or something so she's known all along that something is up with Grant. I would love to see a fic where they are keeping their past a secret from the others and she covers for him." All characters belong to Marvel.


_"This place has nothing left for us but a reason to leave. How does it feel to be on the fault line? How do we heal when we're on the decline? Cause it's a hell of a long way to fall, just to learn to get up…"_

It had been twelve years since Skye had last seen Grant Ward, and now he was standing next to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, ready to put a bag over her head. It shouldn't have surprised her, really. Their relationship was nothing if not complicated, ridden with the dysfunction of their childhoods, the rage that went deeper than their roots, and the shaky bond that had finally formed between them when they finally realized they needed each other to survive.

_She had just been placed in St. Agnes' again because the last foster family hadn't been a "good fit" either, and she had been tired._

_So tired._

_So she ran away—ran like she always did when staying got too hard, when the walls of the orphanage seemed to grow closer around her every second, when no matter how many children slept in beds next to hers, she was always left alone._

_She had found the boy in an alley six miles from the home. It was on the rougher side of town, and he was the roughest of them all._

_Skye had only been nine when she had ducked into the alley that fateful day and come face to face with a street brawl. It was three against one, and the kid—a scrawny eleven-year-old with eyes like fire—had been standing between the three older assailants and a smaller boy who lay curled in a terrified huddle behind him._

_Thinking ahead hadn't been her strong point, so nine-year-old Skye had picked up a rock and hurled it at the biggest bully. "My father will hear about this," she shouted, even though nothing could be further from the truth, even though she had never had a father. She had made up the rest on the fly—that her father was the mayor, that he was only a few minutes behind her with his security team._

_The boys had fled—Skye had always wondered how she had the power to be so convincing—and the boy had faced her down, his stare still arrogant and aggressive. Finally, he had held out his hand. "Grant Ward," he said gruffly. "Who are you?"_

_"Skye."_

_It was the first time she saved him…_

"Why don't you tell us how the rising tide got this information?" Ward asked, yanking the bag off of her head.

She smiled up at him, and she could see the fear embedded in his eyes, despite the blank non-expression on his face. "Information shouldn't be hidden. That's what your organization _does_, Mr. Super Spy, and we're all about _exposing your lies_."

Ward didn't react to her words, even though she knew they had to have struck deep; the knowledge that she knew and could expose him with a few words. Garrett's training must have been thorough, then, if he could rid his face of emotion so completely.

_Good god, Ward, what must he have done—what must Hydra have done—to you all those years? Of all the things I couldn't save you from, that's the one I regret the most…_

Ward found her later, alone in her bunk, and he stood briefly surveying her, his eyes dark. "Coulson says you're staying."

"I guess so."

"So what does this mean?"

"That we all have secrets, Ward," Skye said, shaking her head. "You'll keep mine, and I'll keep yours. Like we've always done."

"A lot has changed since then," Ward said sharply, looking away. "I didn't know if I could trust you."

"Some things never change," Skye whispered fiercely, and then pushed past him out of her room, away from his eyes and the specter of the past.

They didn't speak of it again for weeks. He trained her, she bickered. They played board games; Battleship.

She won.

Grant pouted.

And slowly, slowly, Skye began to think that perhaps this new Grant Ward could become the real one, eventually; that this new person she was becoming could stay.

_Oh, Skye, you fool._

That's when he hacked them—the boy who had found her in the weeks after Ward had left with Garrett. Skye had been fifteen; had been running wild with Ward for six years before he left and was more devastated than she had ever been in her life.

Miles had found her in the same alley where she first met Grant Ward.

He had taken her out of the darkest place of her life—and for that she was grateful. But she'd told him a little about Grant—only a little, but a little was too much in a world where secrets meant life or death.

_"What do you mean, he left you for S.H.I.E.L.D.? What's S.H.I.E.L.D.?"_

_"An intelligence agency," Skye had told him bitterly. "The same one that redacted all the information on my parents. Bastards."_

_"And this Ward kid left you for them?"_

_"He's not—exactly—part of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Skye had fumbled. Ward had told her about Hydra and how deeply they'd infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.; how the man who would be his SO had made sure Ward would be on the winning side. "But he's going to try to find out what he can about my parents. Who they were. How they died."_

_It hadn't been that simple of course—and when Ward had told her that not even the agents with the highest security clearance were allowed to access Skye's original file; that it was for Nick Fury's eyes only, Skye had sworn that she would destroy SHIELD the way they had destroyed so much of her…_

But now Miles would be a danger to Grant the second he heard his name.

"Let me trace the hack," Skye told Coulson, and Ward looked at her, his head tilted as he assessed her critically.

"I believe we should let her, sir," Ward said, nodding just slightly at her.

_Please trust me, Grant. Please. Even when you find out. I'm doing it for you. I always have been…_

"Hands," Ward said coldly, holding up the handcuffs, and Skye held up her wrists reluctantly, looking down.

"It's not what it looks like," she said, but he looked down at her emotionlessly.

"Save it."

Later, Skye cornered him in his room. He looked up when he saw her, and his eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I was protecting you," she snarled, slapping him across the face with the hand that was now fitted with a tracking bracelet. He stared at her, uncomprehending. "We keep each other's secrets, so that means you're supposed to _trust me._"

"So you slept with a hacker and sold our team out?"

"_Our team_? Do you hear yourself, Grant?" she hissed. "I know you like them, and I like them too, but you're not S.H.I.E.L.D. and you never were. You sold this team out long before you even joined it. I had to drive Miles off, get him caught, make sure SHIELD had him on their radar."

"Why?" Ward asked skeptically, but he was softening.

"Because I told him that when you joined S.H.I.E.L.D., it was to help me find out about my parents. He found me the week after you laugh. Did I ever tell you that? He found me, and I was a mess. I had your handgun, and I was ready to put a bullet through my own brain because I thought you weren't coming back and I didn't know if I could survive that again."

When Ward looked up at her, devastation was written across every inch of his face. "I never knew," he whispered. "You were always the strong one, Skye, and I was always the one who needed you. I never thought I _mattered_"—

"You never thought you mattered?" Skye asked fiercely. "God, Grant, you were all that mattered for six years of my life. And then you were gone. And even though I knew it was to help both of us, I was alone. I was always alone."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, reaching for her, but Skye shook her head.

"It doesn't matter now," she said sharply. "I just need to know that you'll trust me, no matter what. That you'll always have my back."

He nodded, and opened his mouth. "I wish"—

"No, Ward. Please don't. It's too late for anything else."

Months later, when Skye found out he'd slept with May, she thought she might lose it. But he grabbed her shoulder, pulled her into the nearby storage closet, and hissed in her ear. "We do what needs to be done, remember?" his voice was tight, laced with emotion. "I have your back. Don't ever doubt it."

"And May?"

"You said it yourself." Ward looked away from her, his eyes dark. "I was never S.H.I.E.L.D. I'll never even have that chance, not like you will. I have my orders from a different place. And besides, I don't want anyone to know that there was ever something between us. Not even years ago."

Skye nodded sadly, and Ward released her arm, turning to go.

"Ward?"

He looked back over his shoulder briefly.

"It's not too late," she said. "Coulson gave me another chance, you know? He can still help you."

"No," Ward said softly. "It's been a long time since I was worth a second chance, Skye."

It took a bullet to her gut to bring him back to her. She couldn't remember much of it herself—she remembered Mike, his face seared with burns, looking out at her through tortured eyes, she remembered the others, running as he gunned them down, and then Quinn, Quinn with his handgun and his orders, Quinn holding her close and firing—

And then darkness.

And when she woke to find Grant Ward keeping vigil at her bedside, it was darkness she saw in his eyes. He was staring at her in relief, but it was revenge written across his face. "Skye," he breathed. "Oh, god. We thought we lost you."

"Well, you didn't," she said, forcing her tone to sound bright. "Are you okay?"

"You barely survived a gunshot wound, and you're the one who's asking that question?"

She grinned at him, and he nearly smiled back.

He leaned forward, dropped the words into her ear. "I can't lose you again. Not even if it means we blow my cover."

"I can't let that happen," Skye said firmly, but then Ward's lips met hers, gentle and slow at first, and then deeper, his tongue inside her mouth and she couldn't breathe. Her side hurt—hurt like hell, even though he tried not to move her—but she wouldn't let him stop. Didn't want to stop.

It was Simmons who broke them apart, scolding as she did so. "Agent Ward, what have I told you? No… umm, intense… physical contact until Skye is better."

"I'm better," Skye told her stubbornly, but a tiny moan escaped her lips.

"Out," Simmons pointed towards the door, and Ward retreated, still grinning.

_After Hydra._

Coulson stared at Skye, shaking his head. "You want me to bring him back to this team?"

"I'm not asking you to trust him like before, sir," Skye said. "But he chose us when it mattered."

"He chose you. It was never about S.H.I.E.L.D."—

"It was never about Hydra, either, it was about sticking with the people he cares about."

"That's you," Coulson said stubbornly.

"That's all of us," Skye told him firmly. "You know he chose Hydra when he was recruited?"

"Yes," Coulson acknowledged. "Meaning he's been a traitor to you long before he was a friend."

"He did it for me."

"Excuse me?"

"I knew him," she said softly. It was her last secret—all these months with the team, all that they'd been through, and it was, finally, her last secret. "We grew up together, Ward and I. He knew about my parents, sir, and that's the reason—that's the only reason—he left with Garrett. To uncover the truth."

Coulson was looking at her as if his world had just been destroyed all over again. "Oh, god," he said, his voice hollow. "Why did you never tell me?"

"I couldn't," she said. "Me and Ward, we have each other's backs, no matter what."

"And you think Ward can be a part of this team? Do you think May and Fitzsimmons will work with him after all this?"

"They let me come back after Miles," Skye reminded him. "And Ward chose us when it mattered. Sir, he needs a second chance. I just need you to convince him he's worth one."

Ward found her that night, when she was sitting alone in the main hub.

"Skye." His voice was soft when he said her name, but then his arms were around her and he was pushing her down on the couch and she was kissing him fiercely. "I love you, Skye—I can, now. Skye, you were my second chance…"

"And you were mine, Grant," she whispered, pulling him down on top of her. "You were mine."


End file.
